U.S.’s Pledge to Fight Terrorists in Afghanistan Will Be Harder Without Boots on the Ground - WSJ

U.S. officials acknowledge the military has lost 90% of the intelligence collection capabilities it had using drones before the drawdown of forces began in May.

Probably not a good idea to offer informants assurances of protection and safe passage to America.

When the U.S. pulled its troops from Iraq in 2011, many officials and analysts say, it lost much of its ability to closely track the growth of Islamic State, which seized swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and prompted the U.S. military to return.

We weren’t even gone before ISIS-K developed capability to attack our interests.

Intelligence agencies had estimated it would take terrorist groups about two years following the U.S. departure to reconstitute themselves and possibly pose a threat to the U.S. or U.S. interests globally. That timeline is being reassessed following the U.S.-backed Afghan government’s collapse, senior military officers said.

We’re super good at estimating.